KAGEKI 04/21/2000

              (Written by jom)

    This is the show where KAGEKI decided their first top champion via single elimination tournament (plus two funky little second round matches). I've put off watching this show for a long time, mostly due to the fact that the entire first round is horrifically clipped, which would always put me in a bad mood whenever I would turn it on. At least, I thought the first round solely existed as a clipped mess. Turns out I'm an idiot and whoever uploaded the show online is The Great Deceiver: while I was under the impression that this was a VHS release, this was actually put on SKY-A TV, and the show was broken into two halves. The horrifically clipped first round was actually just quick highlights, as first round matches were shown in full a week before! Thanks to a friend of mine I finally have both broadcasts, so I might as well write about it. 

First Round: Azteca vs. Chocoball KOBE

    Company founder (and therefore strongest pick for the tournament) Azteca takes on flash-in-the-pan sleazeball shooter KOBE. Azteca is here in a very bold but usual mask, complete with little white fangs and the yellowest hair ever, which is a strong way to start the AZTECA MASK WATCH I will be partaking in as we go through this show. KOBE does not have a mask but it significantly cool even without one. He's probably the most forgotten Kitao Dojo graduate to have done anything of note, with all respect to BATAyan and the bald guy from the Jericho show. Considering just how little has made tape of him, it'd probably be pretty damn easy to make a career comp, and someone should! He's kind of like if you smashed Mochizuki and TARU together into one man and gave him a bad spray tan, stiff and athletic while also not being afraid to foul it up. He starts the match hot with a punch to the face and one of his ludicrous backfists, and he maintains that energy while on top of Azteca throughout the match, laying into him with the big kicks while also pulling out some interesting holds like a La Casita turned into an armbar. Azteca, for his part, has already begun his transformation into the Local Liger, and carries himself with a similar kind of staunch confidence, but his actual moveset falls more into the Choshu category of having five moves that you do really really well. His lariat is cracking and his kneel kick floats without losing impact. More than anything though, he's got the expressions to make a full bodysuit and mask work, and he knows when to take back the wheel from a heater like KOBE. It all comes together into a pretty fun albeit unspectacular face/heel type of match, which I'm happy to see regardless. 

First Round: Onryo vs. KAZE

    So this is less than a minute long, which somewhat limits the amount of words I can reasonably write. I will say that, generally speaking, I do appreciate a good sub-minute match, with "good" usually being up to whether that runtime makes any sort of sense. Takao Omori ruining Jun Akiyama in seven seconds is one of the coolest and boldest booking decisions of 90s All Japan, and, even if I wasn't in love with it like others were, the Iizuka/Izuchi quick kill UWF match was probably the most interesting way GLEAT could've set Izuchi up as a monster shooter (even if it had zero ramifications on his career after that). All of that is to say that this match is fine I guess. It starts hot, keeps the match hot, and then ends hot. KAZE, four months into his career, is already clearly a talented worker, and he nearly kills Onryo with a rana which is a great way to get a big thumbs up from me. Onryo hits his usual cool stuff and also has a cloud of smoke puff off of him when KAZE dropkicks him really hard. For what it is, it's cool.

First Round: Yutaka Fukuda vs. Daiyu Kawauchi

    It's always cool to see the most time given to the rookie matchup in one of these tournaments. Fukuda and Kawauchi would both go on to do greater things than anything they ever did in KAGEKI, but here they're two fresh-faced youngsters in Highspots-esque bad gear, born from the fed's dojo and ready to start figuring themselves out. They play into the style differences hard, with Fukuda hunting for armbars and hitting big kicks to soften Kawauchi up, and Kawauchi responding with power spots and big lariats. It goes beyond the moves and into the methodology as well: Fukuda is a three-dimensional fighter, pulling off a wide variety of strikes and suplexes and big shocking aerial moves to keep Kawauchi on his toes, while Kawauchi is closer to a raging bull repeatedly running head-first into a wall, just waiting for it to crack. I wouldn't dare claim that this is the cleanest piece of work (Fukuda nearly explodes his own asshole with an under-rotated 450), but considering the limited experience either man had at this point, this is really awesome stuff, borderline great as a complete match with an undeniably stellar finishing stretch.

First Round: Nasty Black Panther vs. Guerrero Diablo

    Easily my most anticipated match of the first round, but one that only somewhat delivers on expectations. This is, sadly, a little too unserious. Diablo and Nasty Black Panther (GENTARO with a sick mask and womanizer gimmick) are the two most popular heels in the company, and they start off about as high-octane as you'd hope, before quickly settling into funny haha pro wrestling. I get it, NBP is always at least a little bit of a jokester, and that's probably the best direction to go with a heel vs. heel match if they don't wanna commit to something more heinous, but I can't deny that the joke goes on a bit too long for my liking. It does lead to some good bits, especially NBP accidentally hitting the space rolling elbow on the ref, only to continue through with the bulldog like he's on autopilot. Plus, the actual moves and sequences they pull off are awesome, like NBP's Asai moonsault and Diablo's Diablo Driver. It's an enjoyable match, but it's also one that could've been the best of the first round, and instead ended up in 3rd place.

Second Round: Azteca vs. Shigeo Kato

    Now THIS. This right here. This is the shit I'm looking for. On paper, Azteca/Kato is a pairing that has potential, but I came into it prepared for a fine enough segue encounter, especially considering this is just another run on Azteca's ladder to the main event. Instead, the two of them deliver a legitimately great face/heel encounter, full of smart old school wrestling and genuinely interesting control flow. Azteca (this time wearing a more red mask, complete with little devil horns and a gaping maw) once again delivers good top guy work, but Shigeo Kato is far and away the most interesting part of this one. A man displaced out of time, his 2000s Japan work feels more fitting in a TV studio in 1984 than Tokyo Battle Sphere in 2004. He hunts for Figure Fours like the best of them, and isn't afraid to poke an eye or use the ropes for leverage. As stated before, Azteca is at his best when facing an outright heel, and this comes together as probably his second best big time singles match of this era, only behind the Diablo title match from 2002 that stands as my favorite KAGEKI match in general. Azteca is THE guy coming out of this match, with the type of furious anger in his punches held by the best hometown babyfaces, and the crowd happily bit on every kneel kick or enzuigiri he pulled off. I really can't say enough about this match. A strong casemaker for both guys as masters of local crowd pro wrestling.

Second Round: SAITO vs. Guerrero Diablo

    A reminder that sometimes, things are just going too well. Not that this match is bad. Hell, it was probably cool! Emphasis on the "probably" because this is CLIPPED. My heart is broken. What we get looks fun though, with Diablo jogging over to the face entrance as SAITO's theme starts playing to bumrush him behind the curtain. He does some nasty backwork, SAITO takes a ridiculous flat-back spill to the outside, and Diablo even gets to hit a Diablo Driver. SAITO's comeback work in response is fun, albeit we only see him do two moves thanks to the clipping. I can't really say that this was good or bad, but it probably leaned more towards good considering what we have.

Semi-Final: Onryo vs. Azteca

    What a strange state of affairs this match is. Azteca comes out with a blue oni-type mask (the worst of the three masks so far but still good), which makes me think he's gonna be evil and fight demon with demon. Not really, no. Onryo spends a lot of this match being weird and janky, which isn't too unusual for him, but also entirely devoid of a hook. For as a strange of a worker as Onryo is, he's usually able to hook me with some of his work, from the complete car crash antics to the esoteric grappling to whatever else. Here, he's seemingly going through the motions as much as he can, and Azteca does little to motivate him. The biggest issue with this match is that it has zero heat and an obvious winner, and neither man really tries to make me believe otherwise on either front. The most interesting spots come when Onryo continues Kato's earlier legwork, and when Kato himself appears to run interference and try to help Onryo win. It says a lot that all of Onryo's best work existed because of Shigeo Kato. This is closer to white noise than pro wrestling, and I feel like my brain has been entirely wiped clean.

Semi-Final: SAITO vs. Daiyu Kawauchi

    Thankfully, this is a return to form. Great high-spec juniors work here, as SAITO tries to llave Kawauchi to death and Kawauchi responds with his usual bull-headedness and lariat mindset. The early grappling is great and very emblematic of this, as SAITO completely outmatches Kawauchi and Kawauchi can only respond by chopping him from the ground or overpowering him to escape a bad position. SAITO, only a few years into wrestling himself, is already such a master at this. All of his work is so well-executed, from his perfect dropkicks to his massive hurricanranas. Seeing the future Super Shisa pull out some crazy aerial stuff is awesome too, like the missile-esque suicide dive he hit near the middle of the match. Kawauchi, for his part, is once again great as a hulking big man junior, catching SAITO with stiff shots and manhandling him well. The one thing that only just barely damages this match is the finish, which is clearly at least a little fucked up, but that does next to nothing to affect the overall quality. Similar to the Fukuda match earlier, I wouldn't go so far as to call this great, but it's clearly a sign of better things to come from both men.

Final: SAITO vs. Azteca

    Great conclusion to the tournament. SAITO and Azteca deliver probably the best possible match the two could have, complete with llave exchanges, big dives, and tremendous escalation. I appreciate Azteca (in a new version of the mask from round one, now with gold trim instead of yellow) being the only man capable of battling SAITO in llaves as the only guy to face him so far with actual lucha training. SAITO truly gets to flex his muscles in that regard here, especially his penchant for bizarre bridges and handstands. The sequences and counters the two pull off go so well too, unpredictable and interesting without ever going so far into being bullshit dancing or anything like that. In practice, this match is SAITO and Azteca having the customary big main event of the time, while cutting out the middle heat portion in favor of going directly into the bombs after the llaves. The bombs themselves rule too, from SAITO's impressive cradles and suplexes to Azteca's real dangerous looking brainbuster. The match even ends with a great super finisher type move, which feels appropriate and totally works as the finish for a match like this. Overall, another great match from Azteca, and a strong ending to a pretty damn good tournament.